Mae

As King Aerin made his announcements, there was a wave of adrenaline that pumped through Mae’s veins. His eyes met hers, dark and brooding. If he was going to play games, then Mae wasn’t going to be a pawn. No, she was going to be front and center.

“Let the games begin,” she murmured.

Robin was noticeably pale beside her. She wasn’t breathing, either.

Mae smirked and winked at the princess. She gave a small nod. “I’ve got this,” she said softly, her breath hushed and passing between her thinly opened lips.

Robin lifted her hand, offering it to the assassin. Mae took it graciously, gingerly giving Robin’s fingers a small squeeze. The princess held her hand tighter than she did, as if Mae could float away at any moment and disappear.

The room was eerily quiet. There were hushed breaths vibrating through the air as everyone watched in anticipation. The king smiled, offering a hand out as they reached the platform where he stood.

He was so beautiful that it made him hideous. Mae would have laughed in his face and stabbed him right there if there weren’t so many witnesses. She would have torn his throat from his neck and held it up like a trophy if she knew the crowd would have cheered. But they wouldn’t. She’d be killed on the spot.

Maybe it would be worth it for the chaos that would ensue. Maybe it’d be worth it to know Robin would be the next to ascend the throne.

“What a beautiful unblessed woman,” Aerin said loudly, pulling Mae from her morbid inner monologue.

She stared up at the king, holding her breath deep in her throat. His lips were permanently stained scarlet from his blood consumption. It was no secret that the king gave into his blessed indulgences. It’s what made him so powerful.

Mae gave a small curtsy, still holding firmly onto Robin’s hand. She gave it a squeeze before Robin passed her off to her father.

Aerin quickly took it, and kissed the top of her knuckles. “Let us dance?”

Mae smiled and bowed again. “Of course, thank you for such an honor, King Aerin.”

He led her back into the crowd as it parted. Violins started to slowly play as she followed him in the dance. She stared just past his shoulder, meeting Robin’s eyes first in the crowd.

The princess was chewing her lip raw, her brown eyes large and wide.

When she found Ben’s gaze, his eyes were narrowed and his lips pushed into a hard line. He was quickly glancing around the room, assessing and figuring out the situation. Was he looking for an escape for them both?

She had a feeling this wasn’t going to end well. The king was graceful, but she could feel his small stumbles. He was drunk on blood and wine, and he was more crazy than usual after the attack in his court. She didn’t want to think long about what he’d meant about her sacrificing herself for the good faith of the unblessed.

If there was going to be a fight, she wouldn’t go down easily.

Aerin leaned down close to her ear, so that only she could hear. “I have my eye on you, Runea of Diamandis. I hear your work is quite dangerous. Will you be finishing it soon?”

Her spine went cold, but she kept her face even. She knew she hadn’t been obvious with her assignment and neither had Ben. They were always careful. Did Robin betray her? No, she hated her father just as much as anyone else. Did he know who’d commissioned her to kill Robin? Or maybe he was just being wordy.

Instead, she smiled. “Yes, being royal can be tiring, can’t it? Always so many meetings, so many eyes on you all the time.” She leaned back so that she could look at his face. She probably shouldn’t be so forward, but she didn’t care. “I feel so bad for what happened in the arena, it was such a lovely show you’d put on for us all.”

He stared at her, spinning her once and gripping her hip tightly. “Ah yes, and it happened during the Diamandis production, didn’t it?”

Her breathing was guarded. “Yes, very unfortunate.”

His smile was haunting. “It’s a good thing I’ve chosen you to atone for their sins, then.” He went quiet and continued to dance with her as the music continued playing, each draw of the strings sending another shiver down her back.

This was bad, very bad.

She couldn’t deny the king what he wanted, it would put even more of a target on her back, not that the target wasn’t already huge. As the strings came to a slow and their steps came to a halt, she met Ben’s gaze and then Robin’s. They both stared at her, their fears different but there nonetheless.

She grimaced. She had to survive this.

The king let go of her, holding her at an arm's length. He was good at trying to put on a gentlemanly demeanor, despite the atrocities he’d committed. She could kill him right now, spill his blood on this ballroom floor. But she’d be dead in an instant, and that wouldn’t do anyone any good.

“Thank you,” he said at first. “Now, shall we continue?”

She lifted her chin up high. Show no fear. She couldn’t let him know how terrified she was, or how her heart was pounding so loud in her ears that she could have mistaken the beats for drums. “Yes.”

He stepped away and walked toward the table beside his throne. Lifting up the cloth covering the table, he revealed a long knife sitting inside a chalice. Gingerly he carried it back toward Mae. Everyone stared at them, no one daring to make a noise.

Jessie was standing toward the back of the crowd, but Mae saw her anyways. The Amethysian woman looked horrified. If there was a way Mae could have told her to get out of there while everyone was distracted, she would have.

King Aerin lifted the knife to Mae’s chin, slowly tracing the tip of the blade down her jawline. He breathed close to her ear. “I’ll be very gentle, or would you like it if I was rough?”

She gulped. What was he going to do?

He stepped away from her, but he still held the knife steadily at her throat. “Today this Diamandis woman will bleed in solidarity for the Azure kingdom! She will bleed to atone for the atrocities the unblessed have committed, so that we may continue with our festival in peace.”

Her hands went into small fists, and she blinked very slowly, her eyes going hazy as she allowed herself to zone out from the moment. She would feel nothing, and she would react to nothing. It was part of her assassin training. If she screamed and ran from every horrible job, she’d never get any of them done.

In one swift movement the king swiped the sharp edge of the blade against the base of her throat. He didn’t go deep enough to cause her bleed out though, just enough to cause a scene.

As blood gurgled down her neck, he held the chalice toward it.

She started growing light headed, but she lifted her chin higher. She would get revenge for this. She would slaughter every last one of them. They would all feel the pain they’d caused every single person like her in the kingdom. And she’d enjoy doing it.

Finally she opened her eyes again, and she stared at him as he took a long, deep drink of her blood out of the chalice. Some of it trickled down his chin, dropping onto the furs around his shoulders.

He was disgusting. He was vile. She hated him more than anything she’d ever felt before.

He lifted the emptied chalice, and the entire room burst out into cheers and fanfare. The few unblessed stared in horror, but lifted their hands to clap. If they didn’t, they’d probably get called out.

Mae found Jessie again. She grimaced at the woman as their eyes met. She’d get through this -- not just for herself, but for the ones like Jessie, too. She’d destroy them.

Aerin walked toward his daughter, and Robin gazed at him in horror. Her chest lifted and fell rapidly. “Daughter, Robin, won’t you have a taste?” He smiled and took her hand, leading her toward Mae. “Runea, would you allow my daughter to drink from you, as a sign of good faith between the blessed and unblessed of Azure?”

Robin started to shake her head, her lips parting and her cheeks reddening.

Mae smiled, the corners of her eyes stinging. “Yes,” she said. She had no choice. There was nothing she could do in this entirely too big of a room without risking everything. One drop of blood for their lives.

Robin walked toward her, and she put her hands on Mae’s shoulders. Her hands were shaking, and Mae slowly put her hands on Robin’s hips, gripping them tightly.

“I’m so sorry,” Robin’s voice was so low and so quiet that only Mae could hear it. Then, she leaned forward, her lips brushing across the assassins skin. Then she drank.